1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for producing a connector terminal for a multi-stage connector and a method for assembling a multi-stage connector in which terminals obtained by the method for producing the connector terminal are assembled to a connector housing.
2. Background Art
A multi-stage connector having a plurality of, upper and lower, stages in terminal arrangements as shown in FIG. 11 is, for example, known as a connector which is directly mounted on a printed circuit board (see e.g., JP-A-11-162611). In such a multi-stage connector, terminal elements 521 and 522 are inserted into and fixed to press-fit holes 503 formed on a rear wall 502 of a connector housing 501. Lengths of rear leg sections extending from a rear part of the connector housing 501 are different from each other between the terminal elements 521 at the upper stage and the terminals 522 at the lower stage, as shown in FIG. 13A so that total lengths are different from each other.
As a producing method of collectively molding the terminal elements 521 and 522 having different lengths by a press punching process with a good process yield, a method is proposed in which two kinds of terminal elements 521 and 522 are alternately arranged in opposite orientations as shown in FIG. 13B so as to be molded, and after the molding, the cutting points d connecting to respective carriers 511 and 522 are cut off, thereby obtaining separated terminal elements 521 and 522.
However, in a case where the number of kinds of lengths of terminal elements is increased, the yield of the material is degraded so that the cost is increased.
Therefore, a method of press processing six kinds of terminal elements 621 to 626 (terminal elements for respective stages) having different lengths by using different dies is sometimes taken as shown in FIG. 12.